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Is it possible to even have allies in the early midgame?
The only ally I made in my latest try was Dee...and that is only because she was the weakest on the power scale. That was kind of a shock since in most games I've had of late, Dee has been a real ass kicker. She had a lot of space on the landmass she was on, sperated by a vast expanse from her arch nemesis the Planet Cult. Still she managed to let Cha Dawn beat her! (There goes my ally....)
I was miffed. The Gaians should have been able to at least hold their own for awhile if not defeat or force a truce from Cha. They went out with hardly a whimper. Meanwhile EVERYONE ELSE declares vendetta on me! I haven't attacked anyone or done anything wrong. I wasn't even number one for most of the game and I'm only barely holding onto that title now. I tried to make nice by giving into demands, but some of them were too extreme. I refused to give Yang Nonlinear Mathematics for his stupid world map, so I knew he'd declare war sooner or later...plus I was a democracatic UoP . Morgan didn't even have the decency to call me, he and Cha joined forces against me in secret. And Lal....the jerk built a seabase right off of my coast so I had to mind control it. (I though "Total Thought Control" kept the other faction from getting peeved. Guess not. Lal declared vendetta, but we settled into a blood truce.) Miriam demanded Pre Sentient Algorithms from me before the HSA was built...and my denial made her declare vendetta too. (Kind of unfair. How come I can't say "I wouldn't want to see the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm fall into your hands" to the AI)
Maybe I'm just not amiable enough. But the other factions would ask for things that to me were unreasonable to avoid conflict. Giving Yang (or Miriam) your latest weapons tech is a recipe for disaster. Both of them will turn on you and with Miriams attack bonus its always good to keep her a few steps behind. Yang is as trustworthy as Snidely Whiplash. Demands for money are equally bad. The AI factions always ask for WAAAY too much. (Lal: "Pay me 675 energy credits."! 675? I can't remember the exact amount I had but I'm certain it was more than HALF! ) And worse, they ask for vital tech that will allow them to build an SP (and at higher levels the AI will not give you tech that will allow you to build an SP before them) Everyone at one point demanded Centuari Empathy knowing doggone well I was building the Empath Guild. These are things you have to refuse, and by refusing them you make the AI mad and thus I think its probably extremely difficult or impossible to have allies by the time the midgame comes around, unless you pact with someone against someone else. (and man, I have comments on that but I'll post it in another thread.)
D4
The only ally I made in my latest try was Dee...and that is only because she was the weakest on the power scale. That was kind of a shock since in most games I've had of late, Dee has been a real ass kicker. She had a lot of space on the landmass she was on, sperated by a vast expanse from her arch nemesis the Planet Cult. Still she managed to let Cha Dawn beat her! (There goes my ally....)
I was miffed. The Gaians should have been able to at least hold their own for awhile if not defeat or force a truce from Cha. They went out with hardly a whimper. Meanwhile EVERYONE ELSE declares vendetta on me! I haven't attacked anyone or done anything wrong. I wasn't even number one for most of the game and I'm only barely holding onto that title now. I tried to make nice by giving into demands, but some of them were too extreme. I refused to give Yang Nonlinear Mathematics for his stupid world map, so I knew he'd declare war sooner or later...plus I was a democracatic UoP . Morgan didn't even have the decency to call me, he and Cha joined forces against me in secret. And Lal....the jerk built a seabase right off of my coast so I had to mind control it. (I though "Total Thought Control" kept the other faction from getting peeved. Guess not. Lal declared vendetta, but we settled into a blood truce.) Miriam demanded Pre Sentient Algorithms from me before the HSA was built...and my denial made her declare vendetta too. (Kind of unfair. How come I can't say "I wouldn't want to see the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm fall into your hands" to the AI)
Maybe I'm just not amiable enough. But the other factions would ask for things that to me were unreasonable to avoid conflict. Giving Yang (or Miriam) your latest weapons tech is a recipe for disaster. Both of them will turn on you and with Miriams attack bonus its always good to keep her a few steps behind. Yang is as trustworthy as Snidely Whiplash. Demands for money are equally bad. The AI factions always ask for WAAAY too much. (Lal: "Pay me 675 energy credits."! 675? I can't remember the exact amount I had but I'm certain it was more than HALF! ) And worse, they ask for vital tech that will allow them to build an SP (and at higher levels the AI will not give you tech that will allow you to build an SP before them) Everyone at one point demanded Centuari Empathy knowing doggone well I was building the Empath Guild. These are things you have to refuse, and by refusing them you make the AI mad and thus I think its probably extremely difficult or impossible to have allies by the time the midgame comes around, unless you pact with someone against someone else. (and man, I have comments on that but I'll post it in another thread.)
D4
, that's a bad sign of personalizing artificial intelligence.
It's a problem huh. I do this too - especially with the Erratic factions. I often go off what they did to me in the last game, which is really not a good way to do things. You develop self-reinforcing concepts of faction leaders as evil SOBs when really fi you gave them a chance they could be half-decent...for about half a year. Dee and Lal I especially have this problem with - they are generally nice and fluffy in the early game and then become venom-spitting infidels in the mid- and late-game. Lovely people 
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